73 NOAA reference stations · Nov 10, 2026 · measured, not modelled
Soil temperature by depth: 2, 4 and 8 inches
Median at 4 inches across the stations51.5°F2 inches: 50.2°F · 8 inches: 52.7°F (medians). Each row is a station's latest full day: the average of its hourly probe readings at 5, 10, 20 and 50 cm. Readings that fail a plausibility check are dropped.
Measured soil temperature by depth, Des Moines 17 E, IA
°F, daily average of hourly readings at each depth, last 30 days.
- 2 in
- 4 in
- 8 in
Every station, latest day
Sort by any depth. Days are local standard time at the station.
| NOAA reference station | Day | 2 in (5 cm) | 4 in (10 cm) | 8 in (20 cm) | 20 in (50 cm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kenai 29 ENE, AK | Nov 10 | 32.6°F | 33.0°F | 34.1°F | 37.1°F |
| Selma 13 WNW, AL | Nov 10 | 60.5°F | 62.3°F | 64.3°F | 65.9°F |
| Batesville 8 WNW, AR | Nov 10 | 57.3°F | 57.7°F | 56.9°F | 60.4°F |
| Elgin 5 S, AZ | Nov 10 | 60.0°F | 59.3°F | 61.2°F | 63.3°F |
| Merced 23 WSW, CA | Nov 10 | 58.5°F | 58.9°F | 60.0°F | 60.7°F |
| Redding 12 WNW, CA | Nov 10 | 61.2°F | 62.1°F | 62.6°F | 62.0°F |
| Santa Barbara 11 W, CA | Nov 10 | 60.4°F | 61.1°F | 62.9°F | 65.5°F |
| Yosemite Village 12 W, CA | Nov 10 | 47.0°F | 50.1°F | 47.3°F | 49.7°F |
| Cortez 8 SE, CO | Nov 10 | 42.8°F | 43.5°F | 44.0°F | 44.9°F |
| Dinosaur 2 E, CO | Nov 10 | 43.3°F | 43.8°F | 45.2°F | 48.6°F |
| La Junta 17 WSW, CO | Nov 10 | 48.4°F | 49.5°F | 51.0°F | 53.9°F |
| Montrose 11 ENE, CO | Nov 10 | 39.5°F | 40.7°F | 41.8°F | 43.5°F |
| Nunn 7 NNE, CO | Nov 10 | 45.6°F | 47.1°F | 48.5°F | 50.3°F |
| Brunswick 23 S, GA | Nov 10 | 69.8°F | 72.4°F | 71.7°F | 73.9°F |
| Newton 8 W, GA | Nov 10 | 64.0°F | 65.4°F | 66.9°F | 68.1°F |
| Newton 11 SW, GA | Nov 10 | 65.3°F | 67.0°F | 67.8°F | 69.8°F |
| Watkinsville 5 SSE, GA | Nov 10 | 62.2°F | 62.7°F | 64.1°F | 65.6°F |
| Des Moines 17 E, IA | Nov 10 | 52.1°F | 52.7°F | 54.5°F | 56.9°F |
| Murphy 10 W, ID | Nov 10 | 46.0°F | 45.7°F | 47.0°F | 49.8°F |
| Champaign 9 SW, IL | Nov 10 | 50.5°F | 51.5°F | 53.7°F | 56.2°F |
| Shabbona 5 NNE, IL | Nov 10 | 49.8°F | 49.8°F | 50.5°F | – |
| Bedford 5 WNW, IN | Nov 10 | 53.3°F | 53.2°F | 53.9°F | 55.3°F |
| Manhattan 6 SSW, KS | Nov 10 | 54.4°F | 55.8°F | 56.5°F | 59.3°F |
| Oakley 19 SSW, KS | Nov 10 | 50.7°F | 50.5°F | 52.7°F | 57.4°F |
| Bowling Green 21 NNE, KY | Nov 10 | 56.3°F | 56.4°F | 57.6°F | 59.9°F |
| Lafayette 13 SE, LA | Nov 10 | 69.3°F | 70.5°F | 71.7°F | 72.7°F |
| Monroe 26 N, LA | Nov 10 | 63.9°F | 64.9°F | 66.2°F | 67.6°F |
| Limestone 4 NNW, ME | Nov 10 | 42.9°F | 43.4°F | 42.9°F | 43.6°F |
| Old Town 2 W, ME | Nov 10 | 45.0°F | 47.3°F | 48.1°F | 49.1°F |
| Chatham 1 SE, MI | Nov 10 | 45.0°F | 45.9°F | 45.8°F | 47.9°F |
| Gaylord 9 SSW, MI | Nov 10 | 44.8°F | 45.5°F | 47.0°F | 49.2°F |
| Sandstone 6 W, MN | Nov 10 | 44.7°F | 45.4°F | 46.3°F | 47.3°F |
| Chillicothe 22 ENE, MO | Nov 10 | 50.2°F | 51.6°F | 53.4°F | 56.4°F |
| Salem 10 W, MO | Nov 10 | 53.6°F | 55.0°F | 55.3°F | 58.7°F |
| Holly Springs 4 N, MS | Nov 10 | 56.6°F | 57.1°F | 59.9°F | 63.0°F |
| Lewistown 42 WSW, MT | Nov 10 | 41.7°F | 42.0°F | 42.5°F | 44.2°F |
| Wolf Point 34 NE, MT | Nov 10 | 40.6°F | 40.8°F | 42.3°F | 44.6°F |
| Wolf Point 29 ENE, MT | Nov 10 | 39.8°F | 40.1°F | 41.7°F | 42.7°F |
| Durham 11 W, NC | Nov 10 | 57.1°F | 57.8°F | 58.6°F | 61.2°F |
| Northgate 5 ESE, ND | Nov 10 | 39.7°F | 40.5°F | 41.2°F | 44.5°F |
| Harrison 20 SSE, NE | Nov 10 | 41.9°F | 44.0°F | 43.9°F | 47.8°F |
| Lincoln 11 SW, NE | Nov 10 | 49.9°F | 51.8°F | 52.8°F | 54.2°F |
| Whitman 5 ENE, NE | Nov 10 | 47.0°F | 47.7°F | 48.5°F | 50.6°F |
| Los Alamos 13 W, NM | Nov 10 | 40.3°F | 41.5°F | 41.7°F | 41.8°F |
| Socorro 20 N, NM | Nov 10 | 53.4°F | 54.0°F | 53.2°F | 56.9°F |
| Mercury 3 SSW, NV | Nov 10 | 58.0°F | 59.1°F | 59.7°F | 62.7°F |
| Ithaca 13 E, NY | Nov 10 | 48.7°F | 49.3°F | 49.6°F | 50.3°F |
| Millbrook 3 W, NY | Nov 10 | 49.9°F | 50.8°F | 52.5°F | 54.7°F |
| Goodwell 2 E, OK | Nov 10 | 52.5°F | 53.0°F | 53.5°F | 57.2°F |
| Stillwater 2 W, OK | Nov 10 | 59.4°F | 59.6°F | 60.7°F | 62.7°F |
| Stillwater 5 WNW, OK | Nov 10 | 58.1°F | 58.9°F | 58.9°F | 60.9°F |
| Coos Bay 8 SW, OR | Nov 10 | 54.6°F | 54.2°F | 53.2°F | 53.4°F |
| Corvallis 10 SSW, OR | Nov 10 | 56.6°F | 55.7°F | 55.3°F | 55.8°F |
| John Day 35 WNW, OR | Nov 10 | 54.2°F | 53.9°F | 51.8°F | 52.3°F |
| Riley 10 WSW, OR | Nov 10 | 43.4°F | 43.6°F | 44.5°F | 46.6°F |
| Avondale 2 N, PA | Nov 9 | 53.3°F | 54.0°F | 55.2°F | 56.4°F |
| Kingston 1 NW, RI | Nov 10 | 52.6°F | 55.7°F | 54.4°F | 56.5°F |
| Kingston 1 W, RI | Nov 10 | 48.9°F | 49.2°F | 50.5°F | 52.4°F |
| Blackville 3 W, SC | Nov 10 | 61.4°F | 62.5°F | 63.5°F | 64.4°F |
| Aberdeen 35 WNW, SD | Nov 10 | 44.3°F | 45.1°F | 46.4°F | 48.0°F |
| Buffalo 13 ESE, SD | Nov 10 | 40.8°F | 41.6°F | 43.1°F | 46.2°F |
| Pierre 24 S, SD | Nov 9 | 47.6°F | 48.2°F | 49.0°F | 50.5°F |
| Sioux Falls 14 NNE, SD | Nov 10 | 45.8°F | 46.7°F | 48.5°F | 49.7°F |
| Bronte 11 NNE, TX | Nov 10 | 63.1°F | 64.1°F | 65.7°F | 66.0°F |
| Monahans 6 ENE, TX | Nov 10 | 62.7°F | 62.6°F | 63.6°F | 64.5°F |
| Muleshoe 19 S, TX | Nov 10 | 56.3°F | 56.6°F | 56.8°F | 58.6°F |
| Brigham City 28 WNW, UT | Nov 10 | 43.1°F | 43.3°F | 44.0°F | 46.4°F |
| Cape Charles 5 ENE, VA | Nov 10 | 55.7°F | 56.2°F | 57.8°F | 59.6°F |
| Darrington 21 NNE, WA | Nov 10 | 47.3°F | 47.3°F | 48.9°F | 48.0°F |
| Spokane 17 SSW, WA | Nov 9 | 43.1°F | 43.7°F | 44.4°F | 45.8°F |
| Necedah 5 WNW, WI | Nov 10 | 47.2°F | 48.4°F | 49.3°F | 51.1°F |
| Elkins 21 ENE, WV | Nov 10 | 48.4°F | 49.6°F | 51.9°F | 53.7°F |
| Sundance 8 NNW, WY | Nov 10 | 41.1°F | 40.9°F | 42.0°F | 43.2°F |
Which depth matters for which job
- 2 inches: where grass seed and small vegetable seed sit, and where crabgrass seeds germinate. It warms fastest on a sunny afternoon and cools fastest at night.
- 4 inches: the depth most planting rules quote (lawn pre-emergent, seeding, corn and soybean planting). It swings less from day to night, so it is the steadier number.
- 8 inches: the root zone of established lawns, shrubs and transplants. It lags the air by days to weeks: it is the last to warm in spring and the last to cool in autumn.
In spring the shallow soil is usually warmer than the deeper soil during the day; in autumn the order flips and deeper soil holds summer heat longer. The table shows this every day at NOAA's reference stations, where buried probes are read every hour.
What this site's map and city numbers are
The model values on the map, the city and the ZIP pages are the GFS 0–10 cm layer: one average for the top 4 inches, not a reading at exactly 2 or 4 inches. The measured depths above are what the accuracy check compares that layer with (the mean of the 2 in and 4 in probes).
Data: U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN) hourly data, version 2 (soil temperature at 5 cm and 10 cm, air temperature) (NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)).